The Confederate Secretary of War grapples with one of the thorniest problems of a nation torn by civil war: how can civilians from the Confederacy travel into Union states and vice versa. Northerners could not pass south without the permission of the War Department in Washington. Seddon suggests Southerners should require similar permission from Richmond to go north. "The Department does not perceive any necessity of placing those who are permitted to land, nor those who shall make application to depart from the Confederate States under a special allowance. None of the latter class are allowed to leave at this time, without affording satisfactory references to their good character. That precaution will be continued. The Department is quite willing to place the subject in the hands of the Commissioners of Exchange of prisoners, and that they may determine who shall be allowed to go and return on either side. It does not desire to impose restrictions or embarassments in the way of such intercourse as it is willing to allow at all. The adoption of rules by the U.S. Government may require the adoption of corresponding rules on the part of this Government. But the Department would prefer rules which would not subject persons on either side to inconvenience, expense or delay."